Now in it’s 10th year, the Cape Town Pride Festival is planning on hitting Cape Town with a major colour explosion with their Return to the Rainbow theme.
For those not familiar with Cape Town Pride, they’re a Non-Profit Organisation that is committed towards being inclusive and encompassing of all members of the LGBTI community. Each year they coordinate the Cape Town Pride Festival which always ends with a big street parade & party where proud LGBTI community members, their friends and family members as well as companies that support equal rights are invited to participate.
Pride Parades are actually hosted all around the world to commemorate the Stonewall rebellion – a series of demonstrations by the gay community against a police raid which took place on June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York. These police raids had become a regular thing as it was illegal to serve gay people alcohol or for them to dance with one another. During the raids customers had to line up to have their identification checked and those without identification or dressed in full drag would then be arrested.
The demonstrations which followed are widely regarded as the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBTI rights, and today Pride Parades serve to celebrate the progress that has been made towards human equality.
Here in Cape Town, our Pride Festival really is a celebration of all the different cultures and people who make up our community, irrespective of gender, race, beliefs or orientation, and this is therefore a call for everyone to get involved.
Now this is what the 2015 schedule looks like:
For most of the events, tickets can be purchased at the door. Otherwise you can contact Matthew on 084 761 7942. You can also find out more about each event over here: https://www.facebook.com/capetownpride/events
For the parade: If you’d like to register a float, the cost is R250 and applications can be done via www.capetownpride.org, and if anybody would like to volunteer, just drop Matthew an email at: info@capetownpride.org
For more info and event updates you can also visit www.capetownpride.org, follow @capetownpride on Twitter or check out their Facebook page. So do get a clicking people, and make sure you join in on all the celebrations.
xxx